Family Evaluated

Marriage Does Make a Difference

A recent Pew Research Center report indicates that a record 20 percent of adults over the age of 25 have never married, and that number is expected to rise to 25 percent by 2030. To put things in perspective, that's up from 9 percent in 1960.

Marriage has long been considered one of the milestones of achieving adulthood, but that's quickly changing. Why the shift? For many, marriage simply isn't important. Pew discovered that while 46 percent of Americans polled believe that the country is better off when people marry and have children, fully half, 50 percent, believe that we are doing just fine having other priorities. Americans also value their individual freedom more, and are...